Miners of Zhovtneva mine of Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant have completed an underground protest and are coming to the surface as a result of negotiations with the administration on Thursday, October 15.

"Negotiations between the protesters and administration of Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant ended positively - the Agreement was signed! We will provide more details later, when the miners go to the surface [...]" said Mykhailo Volynets, leader of the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine, on his Facebook page on Thursday evening.

Three hours earlier, he wrote that "negotiations are underway to resolve the labor crisis at Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant. 18 protesters remain underground, awaiting results."

Earlier, Volynets also reported that he arrived to Krivyi Rih with hope of a productive solution to the situation.

As reported, on September 3, the miners of the Zhovtneva mine of Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant remained underground as part of a protest, later they were joined by workers from other mines of the enterprise. Since September 1, the administration of Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant has raised tariff rates and official salaries by 10-25%, since October 1, wages have been raised by another 10%. As a result, on the morning of October 15, out of 414 protesters in four mines, only 21 remained in Zhovtneva mine.

It was also reported that on September 28, Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant applied to Zhovtnevy District Court of Krivoyiy Rih with a claim against ten defendants - individuals who are employees of the enterprise, third parties - the trade union organizations of the enterprise, regarding the illegal strike organized by the defendants in the underground mines of the enterprise.

Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant is owned by the Metinvest group and the Privat group. Operational management of the enterprise is carried out by the Privat Group.